


Sit Still, Look Pretty

by Toothlessturtle21



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Androids, It/Its pronouns for Zane, Kai/Cole/Jay is already established at the start, Kinda, Loosely based on D:BH, M/M, Robot ethics, Robot/Human Relationships, Robots, Slow Burn, detroit: become human au, polyninja - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:29:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 21,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25156273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toothlessturtle21/pseuds/Toothlessturtle21
Summary: With the Overlord defeated and Ninjago at peace, brilliant minds are allowed to work. This brings a new era - one of android assistants to help with anything from chores to nursing. Who better to receive the brand new model ZN600 than the ninja themselves?
Relationships: Cole/Kai/Jay Walker, Cole/Kai/Jay Walker/Zane
Comments: 179
Kudos: 243





	1. Registration Complete

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fangirl616](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl616/gifts).



> For Fangirl616, who gave me the final push I needed to actually sit my butt down and write this :)

Ninjago had industrialized in a very short amount of time. After the defeat of the Overlord, well, the Garmadon version anyway, Ninjago was left peaceful once again. Without the constant and annoying interruptions of Serpentine or Skulkin terrorizing the continent, Ninjago's minds were free to create.

And boy, did they create.

Within a year, construction had completed on the new Borg Tower, right where the Overlord had his fall. A little plaque was put up by the door in honor of the Green Ninja, but that was about all that was left of the old battleground. It wasn't exactly a pleasant memory for the people of Ninjago, anyway.

The androids had arrived quickly, with varying degrees of resistance. There were lines for housekeepers, construction workers, nurses, and even policemen, the prototypes passing inspections with flying colors. Soon, grievances were forgotten, and Ninjago welcomed the robotic helpers into their lives. That is, except for one family.

The ninja lived a relatively plain life. They had renovated Lloyd's old boarding school to remove any traces of what was a breeding ground for bullies and future criminals, and were attempting to turn its inhabitants into functional members of society. However, the little brats did next to nothing to expedite this process. The ninja were up to their necks in rambunctious schoolchildren and its subsequent stress, and it showed.

They woke up tired every morning, their meals consisted of little more than pasta and maybe some meatballs (if they were lucky), and Kai could've sworn he had found a few grey hairs. Jay hadn't touched an invention in months, Cole had given up on experimenting with his food, Nya had let whatever housework she was able to keep up with slip away, and Lloyd was never home, always whisked away to some ceremony he needed to attend. The three eldest ninja had barely any time to spend with each other, their more romantic, intimate life being thrown away in favor of keeping up with the little terrors. In short, the Bounty and its inhabitants were a disaster.

They had asked their mentor repeatedly for a housekeeping android, just *something* to cook some meals besides week-old pasta and buttered bread. Their Sensei, much to their disappointment, was stubborn in his dislike for androids, fearing that it would make his already slacking team even lazier. Any attempts of negotiating were futile, and the ninja had pretty much resigned themselves to falling behind on their chores forever.

That is, until Kai had enough. When it became clear to everyone that their Sensei wouldn't give in, he gathered the team together and laid out a plan. Save a little money each week, not too much, and perhaps use their status to convince Borg to give them a discount on a state-of-the-art android. Jay and Nya, being the tech nerds they were, agreed wholeheartedly, and Lloyd and Cole nodded along in desperation, the Earth Ninja more hesitant than the blonde. An email was drafted and sent, money was being stored in an old uniform box under Kai's bed, and the ninja resigned themselves to biding their time. That is, until Borg emailed back only a week later.

And just like that, the team had arrived at Borg Industries, having been invited by the man himself to see the latest technology under the guise of merely taking their day off to go into the city and relax as a crew. They were greeted by some of his staff, including some metal-skinned androids, and brought up in a glass elevator to one of the top floors, the doors opening with a dramatic _swoosh_ as they were granted access into the personal laboratory.

Cyrus Borg was sitting in his wheelchair as always, but it was the figure massaging his shoulders that caught the ninja's eye. This android was different from the ones at the door. It looked almost human, save for the bright LED eyes and the visible seams in its skin. Its eyes scanned the ninja with a light flicker, pulsed once, and then returned to its creator with no hesitation.

"Ah, the ninja. Please, do come closer. I promise it won't bite," Borg beckoned, and they complied, Jay and Nya practically bursting at the seams with excitement. "I'm sure you're wondering who this marvelous being is behind me."

"Is this why you called us here?" Jay asked, and Cyrus nodded, resting a hand on his android's shoulder.

"This is ZN600, the sixth model of the ZN line. I call it Zane for short. Zane, would you mind going to greet our guests?"

The android nodded, and stepped away from its creator to approach the ninja. It stopped only a few feet away, bowing deeply before resuming its stiff posture.

"Greetings, I am model ZN600. You may call me Zane if you wish. I was created by Mr. Borg to serve as a living assistant, and thus is why my appearance is set to mimic a young adult of average stature."

"Very good Zane," Cyrus smirked dryly, rolling over to meet them as well. "Its social skills aren't too impressive, but they don't need to be given its task list. It can wash dishes, do laundry, organize any mess, and download thousands of recipes."

"Wait, you said ZN600, right? I thought only the 400s were available on the market. And they look nothing like this one!" Jay exclaimed, reaching out and gingerly touching the skin on Zane's collarbone, the android only blinking pleasantly.

"Ah, yes. The 500s were scrapped early on, but the changes were so vastly different that redoing all of the 500 documents would have been a waste of time," Cyrus grimaced, obviously remembering the events less than fondly. "As for Zane here, the reason its not on the market is because its the first of its kind, a prototype."

"So how much do you want for it?" Cole tilted his head, feeling wary about the whole situation, both about the price and the fact that this android looked so _human_.

"Considering you were the team that took down the Overlord in this very location, it would be my honor if you would test out Zane for me, free of charge."

"Free?" Nya raised an eyebrow, inspecting the android with a newfound curiosity. "What's the catch?"

"Well, I would certainly appreciate a report back every once in a while about how its doing, it has our most advanced software to date."

"So you're giving us an entire android, and all we have to do is give you status reports?" Jay asked, and Borg nodded. "Well, deal accepted!"

* * *

They walked home from the tower, Zane pleasantly staring straight ahead, footsteps barely audible as its Borg Industries-issued shoes lightly tapped against the pavement. Other than the shoes, it was wearing plain black dress pants and a white button down, strangely formal wear for a robot intended to do chores. Borg had given them a few necessities, such as refills for its hydraulic fluid, changes of clothes to better fit its job and other occasions, and a few cables for charging.

Cole rolled the cords through his fingers, glancing over at the android, whose gaze never wavered from the upcoming scenery.

"So," Cole began, and everyone turned their attention to him. "How are we going to explain to Sensei that we just happened to get an email from Mr. Borg and he just _gave_ us a top-of-the-line cleaning bot?"

"Exactly like that," Kai nodded. "It was random. Definitely no planning on our part."

"If you say so," Cole mumbled, turning to the android. "So, any of us can just order you around?"

"I do need to have one primary owner, but as long as they give permission, yes," It blinked, its voice barely wavering in tone, staying steady at a smooth tenor.

"Who's that gonna be?" Nya asked, looking around at the others.

"Uh, I'd say either Sensei or Jay," Lloyd piped up, and Jay whipped around to look at him.

"Why me?"

"Well, you know the most about dealing with complicated robot stuff, right? It'd probably respond best if you tried to fix anything."

Jay nodded, very much liking the idea.

"Right, let's get that set up then."

The ninja pulled off to the side, the ZN600 standing still as Jay stood in front of it.

"So, uh, how do I do this?"

"I will start," Zane smiled softly, and raised the palm of its right hand to face the sky. Immediately, a projection sprung up, and Zane closed its eyes.

"First and last name?"

"Jay Walker."

The name appeared on the holographic screen, periwinkle letters contrasting against a deep blue background.

"Is the spelling correct?"

"Yes."

"What are your pronouns?"

"Uh, he/him."

"Pronouns registered. Date of birth?"

The rest of the questions continued on as such, Jay answering each one with his curiosity practically bursting at the seams. Finally, the questions ceased and its eyes opened, Zane flashing the same smile once more.

"Registration complete. Is there any particular title you would like me to address you as, Mr. Walker?"

"Just Jay is fine. You can call all of us by our first names."

"Registered," Zane's eyes pulsed a few times in processing, tucking the file away in whatever corner of its mind key profiles resided in.

"Alright," Jay breathed, tugging the android by its sleeve back onto the sidewalk. "Time to bring you home to meet Sensei, I guess."


	2. Nothing More, Nothing Less

**[Calibrating]**

Zane sat stock still in a dining room chair as its new owner and his friends were harshly scolded by an older man, presumably the 'Sensei' Jay had mentioned earlier. The ZN600 scanned its surroundings, the interior of their home much different than the pristine white lab it was used to.

**[Stress Levels: 20%]**

The stress reading only mildly perturbed the android, unsure as to what the root of the issue was. It closed its eyes, hoping to run a diagnostic that would clear things up.

**[Temperature: Stable]**

**[Hydraulic Fluid: 100%]**

**[Owner: Jay Walker]**

**[Objective: Unknown]**

Zane blinked its eyes open, the problem having been found. Its fingers twitched at the realization that there was really nothing it could do at the moment, having not been given permission by ̶ ̶M̶r̶.̶ ̶W̶a̶l̶k̶e̶r̶ **Jay** to touch anything in the house. So it sat running its fingers over the grooves in its skin, quietly waiting for the argument in front of it to dissipate. Its processing seemed to glaze over, attempting to bring the android into a partially meditative state to conserve energy, its eyes closing and hearing dimming by roughly 50%, still ready to take orders but power off enough to preserve power.

It was at this point that Zane realized that it didn't know how long it had actually been powered on for. The numerous tests, trials, and upgrades had left it with a patchy memory at best, with the most prominent ones being from less than a month ago. It remembered Mr. Borg powering it on for the first time, naming it Zane, and even introducing it to its main creators, but much about its early life remained unknown beyond its basic training that they couldn't program into it.

However, it knew that its memories don't actually matter, and that no one on this ship cared about what it could remember or not, so it quickly scrapped that issue as a minor imperfection and moved onto something far more useful, like trying to get a grasp on the different personalities of the crew in order to better serve them.

After what appeared to be five minutes (its clock had shut down too), Zane was ripped out of its low battery mode by a rough hand around its arm, pulling it up and away from the chair. It blinked, calibrating its processors as Kai held a firm grip on its arm.

"-well, it was free, and it can cook, so it's fine by me!"

And with that, the ZN600 as tugged down the hall towards a bedroom, with a few beds pushed together in the center to form a bed roughly the size of a Queen. It was unmade and the sheets were slightly dirty, the room had faint smells of dirty laundry and a spray that was meant to cover said scent of clothes, and the furniture was covered in a fine layer of dust. Zane was displeased.

"You can start here. Just clean up or something, I don't know."

"But Jay has not given me permission to touch anything in your home. Are you asking to be designated as co-owner?"

Kai stared blankly, like the words washed over his mind before finally settling down.

"Uhh, I'll go get him."

And with that, Zane was left alone once more, and was in the middle of analyzing the debris left on the wooden floor when Kai arrived with Jay, both of them slightly agitated from their run in with their elder.

"Zane, anyone on the ship can give you orders as long as they don't conflict with anything I tell you. Got it?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"Don't call me that," Jay said, and smiled to himself. "Order number one, don't call me anything other than Jay."

"Registered."

"Great, now you have permission to clean anything on the Bounty, just don't go rummaging through our stuff, okay?"

"What, afraid it's gonna find the lube you keep-"

"Shut up, Kai," Jay huffed, and the android didn't respond, clearly having no idea what was happening. "Whatever, we'll leave you to it, Zane."

And with that, they shut the door, leaving Zane alone in the mess that they called their room.

Zane realized with a huff that they didn't actually give it any cleaning supplies, so it began with what it could do - make the bed. As Zane started to rearrange the fitted sheets, it noticed several picture frames on the nightstand.

In the first one, Jay was smiling, his arms wrapped around Kai and Cole's shoulders as Kai held the camera, the Earth Ninja's stoic face a start contrast to Kai's smirk and Jay's grin. In the next one, Kai was hugging who looked to be his sister, based off of the similar facial structures and skin tones. In the last one, the group had taken a picture with a child, estimated age about ten years old, and the blonde boy was angrily sucking on a lollipop.

Something stirred inside Zane when it looked at them. It quickly backtracked, shaking its head minutely to shock its systems out of whatever processing line they were about to progress down, and resumed making the bed. However, its eyes kept flitting back to the pictures, the unknown feeling of looking at them both exciting and terrifying to it. The act of looking at the images felt almost dirty, like it was breaking some law of robotics that it was unaware of, but it couldn't _stop_ looking, memorizing how comfortable each crew member was with each other.

It was only to better know them, it told itself, giving in and picking up the picture with the boyfriends wrapped around each other's shoulders. It was just to better know their dynamic. Nothing more, nothing less.


	3. What's In A Name, Anyway?

Eventually, Zane was given proper cleaning supplies and it finished rather quickly. It then decided to organize the kitchen pantry, which also served to allow it to categorize the entire culinary inventory of the Bounty. While it had all of the utensils laid out in front of it, scanning and writing descriptions for each one, Cole appeared next to it, causing a warning ping to appear in Zane's vision. The ZN600 turned towards the man, expecting him to start a conversation, which he did.

"So, uh, Zane, right?"

It nodded, continuing to lay out the knifes by blade size, sharpness, and purpose.

"Why Zane?"

It looked over and blinked, trying and failing to register the question the first time it was asked.

"My apologies, could you rephrase?"

"Sure. Why do you have the name Zane? There have been other ZN models before you, so why are you Zane?"

"Every ZN100 was named Zinnia, every ZN200 was named Zander, every ZN300 was named Zana, every ZN400 was named Zenith, the ZN500s were never put into production and thus were dubbed 'Zero' by the engineers, and I am the only ZN600. My name is Zane, but I suppose you could contact Mr. Borg if you have any concerns or suggestions for future ZN600s. Of course, Jay could change my registered name at any time, if he chooses to do so."

"Do you want a different name?"

"I don't want anything, I am an android. We are not programmed to want, we are programmed to serve," It explained very plainly, and Cole nodded, sort of understanding.

"So what you're saying is that I should never ask you what you want for dinner," The Earth Ninja smirked a little at the curious glance he received from the android.

"I cannot eat, so it would be rather useless for me to choose what I make," Zane contended, not picking up on the joke. The Earth Ninja sighed, but the smile never faded from his face. A few beats of silence followed, Zane filing away the knives with precision as Cole watched with interest.

"Could I call you Z?"

"Would you like me to register 'Z' as an official name?" It looked over at Cole, and its eyes pulsed when he nodded his head in response.

"Hey Zane!" Kai poked his head in, and the android turned towards the door. "Y'know how to make orange chicken, and if you do, do we have the ingredients for it?"

Zane closed its eyes for a moment, thinking. When they reopened, it hummed in the affirmative.

"Yes, I know how to make orange chicken, and you are sufficiently stocked in order for me to prepare it. Is that what you would like for dinner tonight?"

"Hell yeah!" Kai cheered before ducking back out, and Zane went back to sorting the utensils. Cole looked back and forth between the door and the android, the grin wiped off his face.

"What's it like?"

"What is what like?" Zane asked, its eyes flicking over to the boy beside it for a moment before returning to its task.

"What's it like being just a tool? I mean, you were _given_ to us as an object, and the rest of your life you'll be just- just a slave!"

On that last word, Cole was surprised to see Zane flinch, even if it was only a small jerk of its fingers.

"I don't know any different, therefore I cannot explain how it 'feels'. Besides, I do not have feelings, I am an android. The purpose of our creation was to serve humans, and to think otherwise would be blasphemous to that fact."

"If you say so," Cole sighed, and Zane detected an unusual amount of dejectedness in his tone. "See you later, Z."

And with that, Zane was left alone, unsure of why its chest felt tight as Cole softly shut the kitchen door behind him.

* * *

A few hours later, dinner was served and eaten, Zane refilling drinks and cleaning up the mess from preparations in the gaps between assisting the residents of the Bounty as they ate the feast laid out before them.

"Yeah, I think you're good for the night," Jay nodded, looking around the near spotless kitchen. "You can go into stasis now, if you want. I can help you set up in my workshop."

"A charge would be beneficial to my battery life, yes," Zane nodded in agreement, eyeing the low power warning in the top left of its vision.

"Right, follow me then," Jay gently tugged on Zane's sleeve, the fabric stiff and unyielding. "Hey, do you want some more comfortable clothes? Surely it can't be too fun moving around in this."

"I am fine, you do not need to waste money on more attire. I am fully functional in my current clothes."

"Sure, but don't be surprised if my parents come over and dote on you with a bunch of new stuff. They haven't quite grasped the concept of android-versus-human, y'know?"

"Many Ninjago residents are still wary of androids, your parents are most certainly not in a vast minority."

Jay smiled dryly as he helped the ZN600 assemble the right cables into the right places, all the while babbling about maybe creating something wireless so Zane could charge throughout the day instead of only at night. It pretended to understand. Once it was hooked up and settled into a seated position, Jay watched as it blinked once last time before its eyes went grey, its limbs going stiff and the program that ran its performative breathing cycle going into standby. For all Jay knew, it could be powered off entirely.

On the way out, he threw one last glance towards the sleeping android before shutting off the light, already thinking of the potential status report he could write to Borg.

He met Kai and Cole in their bedroom, Kai already cuddled against the latter's chest while he scrolled on his phone.

"Put the robot to bed?" Kai snarked, and Jay started to change, humming in affirmation.

"It's kinda crazy, it's like it just dies. Everything goes dark and it just goes stiff."

Silence prevailed for a few seconds as Jay shuffled his shirt off, going to replace it as he attempted to start pulling down his jeans.

"Call me crazy, but I feel sort of wrong calling Zane an it," Cole confessed, and both of his boyfriends stared at him curiously.

Kai lifted his head, his expression mostly confused, but there was a smidgeon of concern hidden among the mess.

"Cole, you doin' ok? We can give it back to Borg if you don't-"

"No, Zane can stay. It just feels wrong to call something so human-like an object, I guess."

"But Zane's not human," Jay pointed out, finally changed into pajamas. The Lightning Ninja crawled into bed on Cole's other side, wrapping an arm around the Earth Ninja's stomach. "Yeah, it can mimic emotion, and it looks kinda real, but it's still an android. A pretty nice one, but still an android."

"But Z just acts-"

"Z?" Kai asked, and Cole gnawed on his bottom lip.

"Yeah, that's what I nicknamed-"

"Why are you giving nicknames to it?" Jay yawned, settling in even more. "Just relax, Cole. You'll feel better in the morning, I promise."

"Alright," Cole lied, sinking down further into the bed. "Goodnight guys."

"Night, Rocky," Kai murmured, pressing his face into Cole's pec, Jay mirroring him on the opposite side.

Try as he might, Cole couldn't get the image of Zane sitting alone in Jay's workshop all alone, leaving him tempted to toss and turn or at least go sit with the android to make it more comfortable. However, with a hefty sigh, Cole relaxed into the arms of his boyfriends, content for now with leaving the ZN600 to its own devices.


	4. Midnight Musings

According to Zane's internal clock, it was 3:27 AM. Its battery was full, which is why it supposed it had come out of stasis involuntarily at a rather inopportune hour. It sat in Jay's workshop silently, afraid to make any noise that could potentially wake up its owner or his friends. It wasn't quite sure what sparked this aversion to noise, as it had no qualms conversing with Cole earlier, but something about the silence of the Bounty put its sensors on high alert.

A creak from down the hall made it perk up, seemingly the sound of someone moving about. It listened more attentively, and it appeared as though the cause was of average height and weight, and was trying their hardest to be quiet. It narrowed down the options to Kai, Nya, or Lloyd, and shifted closer to the door, carefully unplugging the cords binding it to the wall.

It slowly stood as to not make any sounds itself, and crept down the hallway on the sides of its feet, the soles of its shoes surprisingly silent on a creaky old ship floor. As if on cue, the light in the kitchen flickered on, the glow creeping out from under the crack in the door as it softly shut. To not cause more alarm than necessary, Zane knocked a gentle rap on the door, and the person froze inside. The footsteps came closer, and the door opened to reveal Kai glaring warily at the intruder.

"Zane...? Why are you up now?" The Fire Ninja asked sleepily, and Zane tilted its head.

"I should ask you the same question. The average young adult needs 8-9 hours of sleep to-"

"Save me the speech. Just come in or stay out, don't just hover in the hallway."

"If it is acceptable, I would prefer to run a quick scan to ensure that-"

"Yeah, yeah, just get in here."

Kai tugged on its sleeve, clearly irritated that his kitchen time was interrupted.

"Alright, what do you want?"

"I am going to check your heartrate," Zane said simply, and gently touched the side of Kai's neck as an unspoken question. Kai nodded his consent, and tilted his head to the side to give Zane more room to work with. He tried not to shiver under the slight chill of metal, although hidden under layers of synthetic skin. Zane held still for 30 seconds, its eyes pulsing with calculations as it finished up. As it ran the numbers, it frowned slightly.

"Your heartrate is 15 bpm over the acceptable rate. Are you anxious about anything?"

Zane didn't know what it said, but apparently Kai didn't like it.

"No! Just shut up and leave me alone, would you?"

"Would you prefer if I returned to stasis in Jay's workshop?"

Kai slowly looked the android up and down before glancing away.

"...No, you can stay. Just sit down or something, will you?"

So Zane sat. It politely crossed its hands in front of it, a universally recognized gesture of politeness as Kai rummaged through the cabinets.

**[Objective: Help Kai]**

"Now that I am sitting down, as per your request, is there anything else I can do to assist you?"

Kai faltered in his movements for a moment, seeming to weigh his options before sighing and sitting on the counter.

"Be honest with me. Am I stupid?"

Zane's eyes flickered for a moment before it shook its head.

"No, not by any means. I have analyzed your speech pattern and your behaviors, and you are not of low intelligence whatsoever. You may act on impulses sometimes, yes, but that does not make you any less smart."

Kai looked genuinely surprised at this analysis, which almost made Zane **f̵̡̯̀͝ ̶͔̍é̶͇̦̉ ̵̢̇e̸̥͗ ̷̠̩̇̏l̴̲̍ ̷̧̪͗-̴̪̫͆͘**

**[Software Error]**

**[Instability Detected]**

**[Initiating Restart in 3]**

**[2]**

**[1]**

**[...]**

**[Restart Complete]**

**[Manual Response Deactivated]**

"-ello? Ninjago to Zane?"

Zane started, which made Kai flinch back. The Fire Ninja peered curiously at the robot before gesturing for Zane to explain itself.

"I encountered a software error. My apologies, I will analyze it to eliminate the issue in the near future," Zane found itself forcibly stating, fully aware that it was _not telling_ its mouth to say that. It regained control of its own words, and reset its sentence. "Could you explain your reaction to me once more? I don't remember anything beyond my statement."

"Oh," Kai seemed disappointed, steeling himself before diving back into his explanation. "It's just... as much as I love my boyfriends, I sometimes just feel so useless next to them. Jay is super smart and Cole is super strong, and I just don't have anything like that going for me."

"You feel as though your personality and characteristics cannot measure up to theirs?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Kai scratched at the back of his neck before rushing his next words out. "Uh, don't tell them I said that. That's- that's an order."

While Kai did technically state the order, he was so unsure of himself that it came out as more of a question. Zane did not consider his tone, and nodded.

"Order registered. Whatever you say to me regarding your feelings towards your partners will be confidential unless given orders otherwise by Jay."

"Thanks. So, you're probably wondering why my heartrate is so high then, eh?"

"I was unable to determine an exact root, so it would be beneficial for future instances if I could catalog this one, yes."

Kai smiled in an odd way, one that had Zane racking its list of emotional descriptors to try and find the right one. Bittersweet was what it settled on, but Kai quickly wiped the look off his face.

"I had a nightmare, I guess. It was weird. I had to solve this puzzle of some sort in order to save Jay and Cole from dying."

"But that is absurd, in what scenario would-"

"It's a dream, Zane, it doesn't have to make sense. All I remember is the feeling of knowing that I wasn't smart enough to save them," Kai paused to clear his throat, and Zane could see the clear signs of Kai working himself up once more. Zane's fingers twitched at the thought of Kai being upset, and its vision wavered with the threat of another reboot. This time, however, Kai saw the spaced out look and sobered up quickly to shake Zane out of it.

"Hey, no more rebooting. You sure you're not broken?"

"There is no evidence within my systems to support such a theory, but I can do a more thorough check upon request."

"Nah, you're good. And I should probably try and go back to bed," Kai stretched and hopped off the counter, his feet landing softly on the wood. "Sensei usually isn't too keen on letting us sleep in. Goodnight, Zane."

"Goodnight, Kai. And before you go," Zane stood, despite never being ordered to. "I believe you are plenty intelligent enough, and if anyone considers you to be anything but then they are sorely mistaken. Do not let such worries trouble you in your slumber."

Kai blinked at the strangely heartfelt sentiments, remembering how he had been telling Cole mere hours ago that Zane was nothing but a lifeless machine.

"Y- yeah. Thanks. See you in a bit."

And with that, the kitchen door clicked shut once more, leaving Zane to step back to its own place in the workshop quietly, making sure to listen for any more disruptions from Kai as the Fire Ninja rejoined his partners.


	5. Prototypical

When Cole sleepily rose from the bed the next morning, the look he got from Kai, who was sitting in bed on his phone, was extremely guilty for a greeting.

"What's with the face, firecracker?" The Earth Ninja raised an eyebrow, and Kai glanced down at the still sleeping third boyfriend before continuing.

"So I had a chat with Zane last night, and you're right."

Cole stared at him for a moment before his brow furrowed.

"I'm right?"

"About Zane, yeah. It's... weirdly human like. Also, it kinda glitched a little bit when I was chatting with it, so that might be something to include in whatever report we write."

"That's definitely not normal. What'd it glitch over? I didn't think Borg would leave such an obvious bug in its code."

"It was late night stuff, you know I get all mushy then," Kai flushed, and Cole laughed a little at his expense before realizing what Kai being up so late meant.

"Wait, you get a nightmare or something?"

"...Of sorts," Kai didn't make eye contact, and his partner knew to back off on the subject. "Anyway, I was talking about how I was a little freaked out and _bam_ , it blacked out for, like, ten seconds. Its eyes went blank and it sat there until it just kinda restarted like nothing had happened. It almost did it again, but I think I interrupted it halfway through."

"Yeah, that's not right," Cole frowned, and Jay stirred on the other side.

"Nghhh... Guys?" The Lightning Ninja, now only slightly awake, rolled over to face the duo, blinking away the sleepiness from his eyes. "What's up?"

"Zane might be broken," Cole frowned, and Kai nodded in agreement. Jay rubbed his eyes vigorously and sat up, glancing around.

"Where is it?"

"Um, no idea," Kai realized with a sheepish sigh. "I left it in the kitchen last night, so unless it went back to where you plugged it in, it's still there."

"Well, only one way to find out," Jay shrugged as he climbed out of bed, stretching his sore muscles. "Come if you want, I don't know if you guys'll know what's going on anyway."

Not wanting to feel left out, Kai and Cole followed the inventor, peeping into an empty kitchen before finding Zane not plugged in, but sitting where it had been charging previously. It was awake, and looked up at the trio expectedly. Jay nodded to himself before turning to Kai.

"Right, so what exactly happened with it?"

"It restarted in the middle of a conversation, just randomly."

"What were you talking about?"

"I'm not telling," Kai huffed, but the annoyed look turned to desperate realization once Jay turned to Zane.

"Zane, what were you and Kai talking about?"

"Kai has requested that the subject matter remain confidential. Would you like to override?"

"Yes."

"He was confiding in me his insecurities regarding his relationship with yourself and Cole."

Jay blinked, and turned to look at the Fire Ninja, whose face had turned a bright red to rival his gi.

"Zane, you weren't supposed to say that!"

"I informed you that Jay could override your previous command, this should be of no surprise to you."

Cole pulled Kai into an affectionate albeit rough side hug, all the while trying to not snicker.

"Man, you just got schooled by the bot."

"It just told you that and you don't feel even the least bit bad for me?" Kai tried to fend of Cole halfheartedly, and the two continued to bicker while Jay pat his workbench.

"Zane, could you just take a seat up here for me?"

"Of course."

The android obliged, hands politely crossing in its lap as Jay pulled out his laptop.

"I'm gonna ask you a few questions while I type my report to Borg, ok?"

"Of course."

Jay pulled up a blank document, attempting to drown out the noise of his boyfriends in the background.

"So what kind of error did you have?"

"My software encountered a situation outside of its parameters, so in order to prevent further damage it launched a quick restart."

Jay typed quickly, and looked back at the android.

"Was that it? Kai talked about his feelings and you shut down?"

Zane blinked, eyes pulsing as it formulated its response.

"Yes. I am attempting to locate and eradicate the root cause of the issue as we speak, so there is no need for concern on your part."

The Lightning Ninja raised an eyebrow, but continued typing anyway, documenting the ease of conversation and the efficiency of its cleaning and cooking, and how there had been no major glitches with the android. Cole and Kai, however, had decided to leave the room to continue their conversation.

"So you noticed it too," Cole said quietly as not to alert Jay, and Kai furrowed his brow.

"Noticed what?"

"That Zane isn't just an android, there's something more swimming around in that robo-brain," Cole quirked his mouth. "Calling Zane an it feels wrong, but it's not like pronouns matter to it, right?"

"I guess, but still..." Kai sighed, headed into the kitchen to fix himself a bowl of cereal. "It'll be hard convincing Jay to give Zane a chance, anyway. He's so used to robots just being tools. To him, implying that they're anything but is insane."

"Yeah," The Earth Ninja agreed quietly, and the duo made their way to the kitchen, where Lloyd was sitting angrily at the table.

"What was the point of getting a fancy robot servant if it's not going to make breakfast?" The blonde pouted, and Kai shrugged.

"Guess you'll have to fend for yourself, greenie. We have cereal in the cabinet," The Fire Ninja walked over to an overhead cupboard and pulled out three mugs, two for him and Cole and one for their boyfriend still typing up the status report. He began to brew enough tea for all of them, and Lloyd sighed dramatically as he poured himself a very unsatisfying bowl of cornflakes.

When Jay and Zane did eventually walk in, the android noticed that Lloyd had prepared himself breakfast immediately.

"I'm terribly sorry, Lloyd, I can prepare you something more substantial if you would like."

"Nah, I'm good," Lloyd replied, but suddenly his face was overtaken by what can only be described as a shit eating grin. "But from now on, I want you to call me Master Garmadon."

"Registered, I will now refer to you as-"

"Don't do that," Jay interrupted, only to glare at Lloyd before turning back to Zane. "I'm gonna override that. Call Lloyd 'Buttface' for the next twenty four hours."

"Registered, I will now refer to him as Buttface for one day."

Zane blinked in slight confusion as Kai and Cole doubled over in laughter, with Jay holding back tears as Lloyd got up in a huff, leaving his bowl behind. Zane looked between the trio and the bowl before choosing to clean up, silently scooping up the dirty utensils before going to hand wash them. It devoted half its processing to washing the dishes, and spent the other half recording and cataloging the laughs of its owners, unsure of what it would need them for, but feeling the moment was too important for it to be forgotten.

A small error message appeared at the thought, and Zane quickly dismissed it, the sensation of its innards being twisted rising to the surface despite no actual damage being done. It realized with a small startle that it was attempting to avoid a shutdown, when there was no real reason to. A restart would be beneficial to its systems, so why was it ignoring the signs that one was needed?

Ironically, that train of thought caused a prompt for a system reboot to appear in its vision, which it once again promptly dismissed. Something was wrong.

**[Stress Levels: 45%]**

Zane felt its hands waver at the reading, taking a large artificial breath to try and cool down its system. Why was it stressed? What was distracting it?

**[Stress Levels: 57%]**

No, that wasn't a good direction. Its owners were going to think it was defective, and then they were going to **s̶͖͍̄é̷̛̗͘͜n̸͓͗ď̵̨̘̖ ̵̥͎̱͑̇ḭ̸̑ț̵́ b̵a̴c̷k̷-̸**

**[Stress Levels: 82%]**

**[Destruction Program Will Activate If Stress Levels Do Not Decrease Within Two Minutes]**

"Zane, you ok? Your eyes..." Jay trailed off, staring as the android's now red eyes glanced over, its hands stilling on the cold metal of the sink. The synthetic skin around its ears had started to recede, but it was slowly returning to normal as the android blinked at him.

"Yes, I will be fine. Thank you for your concern, Jay," It mustered out, although Jay didn't seem to catch onto the strained undertones.

**[Stress Levels: 32%]**

**[Stress Levels Have Adequately Decreased]**

**[Destruction Program Terminated]**

As Jay and Kai left to go tell Nya of their practical joke, Cole lingered. Something about Zane's words didn't quite sit right in his gut.

"Hey," He spoke softly, and the robot turned to face him. "It's best for all of us if you don't hide when your systems aren't working right, yeah? You're a prototype, you aren't gonna be perfect, so you shouldn't hold yourself to the standards of a finished model."

Cole almost couldn't believe that he was pep talking a robot, but Zane seemed to slowly nod as he finished, even if it didn't look convinced.

"I will take your words into consideration, Cole. Thank you."

And with that, Cole left to go join his boyfriends and Nya, leaving Zane alone to begin breakfast for the rest of the crew.


	6. Dodgeball

Zane was eerily alone. Jay and his friends had gone to their teaching jobs, and Sensei had gone out with his brother to meditate on a mountain, meaning it was now left to clean the rooms it didn't get to the previous day and prepare dinner when the time came. Earlier that morning, it had prepared lunches for everyone, making sure to balance all of the food groups to provide each ninja the nutrients that they needed according to their gender, weight, and physical activity. It walked slowly through the halls of the Bounty, knowing that the sooner it started, the sooner it would be finished, and it wasn't too keen on powering down again so early on into the day.

So it dedicated itself to organizing the closets of the ninja first, making notes of each ninja's preferred sorting style, documenting that Kai enjoyed his hoodies folded in a pile while Jay liked them hung up, and Cole kept his on the top of his closet on a shelf. Zane was slightly intrigued by the fact that despite each ninja having their own separate closet, there were clothes blatantly not their size hung up in each closet.

While Cole only had his signature black and little orange thrown in, Kai had some black hoodies thrown into his mix, and Jay had red and black dominating his selection. It seemed to be sorted by tallest to shortest ninja, and only seemed to involve the sweatshirt collection of each ninja. It didn't change the order of the clothes, but made a note to ask Jay for more specific instructions later, and moved on.

It organized each ninja's shoes by color and function, folded their pants and shirts into neat rolls to make them easier to pack into drawers, and sorted their socks and underwear by color and type. When all was said and done, it had only been three hours, and it decided to plan for dinner.

As it laid out the ingredients for hamburgers and streak fries, it let half of its processing power diverge from cooking into other tasks. Without trying, it found its mind wandering to the three ninja that had been designated as its main owners, especially their dynamic with each other. While it wasn't too keen on the terminology and intricacies of romance, it did know that the trio embodied what was classified as a healthy relationship. Normally, it would not even consider relationship status as a factor when considering its owners, but being a mediator in case of domestic disputes was apart of its programming, and such information was deemed vital by it.

Just as it was about to form the patties, it got a notification in its head, sent from Kai's phone.

_Kai: I don't know what ur doing right now but can you come down to the school with medical supplies_

Zane stood still for a second, but then sent an affirmative reply back before putting the half finished meal into the fridge, gathering the Bounty's first aid kit, and climbing down off of the deck onto the grassy fields below. It was a short walk to the reformed academy, and as per its estimate it arrived in exactly five minutes and thirty-two seconds.

Once there, it tracked Kai's phone and traced him to the gym, where there seemed to be a great deal of chaos and screaming occurring.

"Ah, Zane!" Kai exclaimed, relief evident in his tone. The Fire Ninja dashed over, and started tugging Zane towards the opposite corner of the gym. "The nurse's room ran out of supplies, and having a kid bleed on your floor isn't exactly up to code, eh?"

Zane furrowed its brow in confusion before it saw what Kai was referring to. There was boy on the ground no older than twelve, broken glass shattered next to him and a steady but not serious stream of blood coming from various cuts on his arm.

"Would you me like to perform first aid?" Zane turned to Kai, who nodded.

"Yeah, if you can."

Zane knelt down, gingerly prying the child's fingers away from his wounds, mumbling reassurances as it opened the case. Kai handed Zane an unopened water bottle as cotton balls were procured, and the cuts were cleaned carefully and methodically, Zane not minding that a bit of the bloody water stained the cuffs of its shirt.

Just to be safe, Zane rubbed an ointment over the area, and didn't mention anything when the boy jolted and tried to shy away from the gentle hands.

"Yeah, guess we'll need to look into getting cages for the scoreboard, or at least one without a glass cover," Kai attempted to make conversation, and Zane nodded along despite not logging anything Kai was saying. Zane wrapped up the wounds and made sure it was secure before standing, attempting to straighten out its shirt and sleeves the best it could.

"Is there anything else you need me for, Kai?" The ZN600 asked with a hopeful tilt, and an error popped up in the top right of its vision. It was dismissed without being read.

"Unless you want to stick around, you should be good to head back," Kai nodded, and then winced upon seeing Zane's clothes. "Borg gave you extra shirts, yeah? You might want to stick that in the wash."

"He did give me extras of all of my clothing, yes. I will be making my leave now, unless you require anything else," Zane stated, and went to leave before a gentle hand on its arm stopped it.

"Uh, actually, these kids are kinda driving me up the wall today. Do you want to stick around, throw some dodgeballs maybe?" Kai asked, knowing the answer he was about to get but hoping that maybe something would be different.

"I am not programmed to want anything, Kai," Zane began, but upon seeing the Fire Ninja's visible disappointment, changed its tune. "But if you would like assistance in dodgeball, I would be honored to oblige."

* * *

"Remind me again why we're eating takeout pizza when we literally just got a robot to cook all of our food?" Jay raised an eyebrow, and Kai shrugged, smugly eating his meat lover's slice.

"What can I say, I got it sidetracked a bit. Also, Zane can throw a mean dodgeball when you tell it that it's ok to pummel small children."

"You had Zane play dodgeball?" Cole was simultaneously impressed and disturbed by Kai pulling their housecleaning robot aware from its duties to play games. "Did it want to?"

"I mean, it didn't say no," Kai answered, and the two sighed, the trio eating their pizza slices in their shared bedroom to discuss away from the advanced range of Zane's ears.

"That's not a yes," Cole shifted uncomfortably, and Jay turned his scrutiny to the Earth Ninja.

"Cole, it's a robot, it doesn't need to consent to shit like playing games with school children. It's not like Kai molested it or anything," Jay grumbled, and Cole almost dropped his slice.

"What the fuck? How could you even joke about that?" The Earth Ninja felt his stomach clench with nerves, his mind reeling as Jay shrugged.

"Relax Cole, it's not a person," The Lightning Ninja brushed off the comment, but Cole could see that even he was slightly unsure of that statement.

"Yeah, that gives me a weird feeling," Kai frowned, taking a bite of his slice, knowing exactly it felt wrong but not wanting to admit to it. "Dunno why, it just does."

"Alright, alright, I'll stop," Jay threw his hands up in a mock surrender, nearly knocking his plate off his lap. The room fell silent once more save for their chewing, tension settling over them like a thick blanket. Cole and Kai kept exchanging glances, knowing that they were thinking the same thing but unsure of how their boyfriend would react. Finally, Cole took a deep breath and set down his plate.

"Jay, Zane's not just a robot."

Jay stopped chewing for just a moment as he processed the statement before hurriedly swallowing.

"What do you mean?" He asked, trepidation evident in his voice.

"There's something else going on in there. He's too human," Kai added on tentatively, and Jay looked between the two of them cautiously.

"What do you want me to do, pretend it's not an android? Because that's what it is."

"No, I guess I just wanted to put it out there I don't think it's right to order it around so much," The Earth Ninja explained, and then he set down his slice in order to gently take a hold of Jay's hand. "Look, I'm not asking you to stop, I'm just saying that you probably shouldn't downplay any signs of humanity Zane displays. I don't know what Borg did to that android, but it's not like any other one on the market."

"Yeah, just try and have a conversation with it that's not about robotics," Kai advised, and Jay looked at him uneasily. "You'll see, it's actually pretty emotionally intelligent when you give it a chance."

"Please, Jay?" Cole tacked on, and the Lightning Ninja sighed dramatically.

"You two will be the death of me, I swear. Fine, yeah, I'll do that," Jay may have looked annoyed, but his boyfriends could hear the sincerity.

"Thanks," Kai smiled, and scooted closer to him, Jay accepting the invitation for a side hug with an open arm.

Meanwhile, just outside the door, Zane couldn't stop its hands from shaking. Its eyes flashed red as it processed what was being said inside, knowing that it was wrong and probably against orders to eavesdrop on its owners, but something unknown kept it rooted to the spot.

**[Stress Levels: 78%]**

**[Shutdown Will Commence If Stress Levels Are Not Lowered]**

Its owners thought it was _human_? No, no, showing humanity _was not in its code-_

**[Stress Levels: 85%]**

**[Destruction Program Will Activate If Stress Levels Do Not Decrease Within Two Minutes]**

Alright, it had two minutes to get its stress low enough so it wouldn't rip out its own wires. It debated simply going to curl up and destruct by itself on a more secluded part of the Bounty, but decided that it should probably attempt to remain operational. So, it knocked on the door, and it heard one ninja crawl off the bed and walk towards it.

Jay opened the door, and was immediately concerned by the pulsing red eyes and the synthetic skin receding once more around the nape of its neck.

"Woah, woah, what's wrong?" Jay's eyebrows furrowed, unsure of where to touch or how to help.

"My apologies, but I overheard some of your conversation as I was walking by," Zane mumbled, its processors not letting it speak more clearly. "I will destruct in slightly under two minutes unless my stress levels lower."

The ZN600 could see Cole and Kai's faces flood with guilt and worry and even some horror in the background, but it was more focused on Jay, who was gnawing on his lip.

"What's it at now?"

"87%"

"Ok, that's really high," He took a deep breath before gently tugging Zane inside and shutting the door. "I have absolutely no idea how to properly fix your stress levels, but I have a human idea. Cole, get over here."

The Earth Ninja seemed surprised, but complied.

"Give this android a hug," Jay smiled, albeit it small and a little crooked. "See if that helps."

Zane was just about to question what a hug was when Cole's arms wrapped around it, and warmth seemed to seep into its skin.

"Hey, you'll be ok," Cole mumbled, and Zane found itself believing it. "You can figure this out, it'll be ok."

**[Stress Levels: 75%]**

"My stress levels have decreased, but not enough," It stated, and the arms squeezed a little tighter.

"We don't care if you're not a perfect android, Zane," Cole tried, and the ZN600 tensed under the blunt statement. "I know your code is more advanced than maybe even Borg knows, and that something in your head is preventing you from even realizing that yourself. But that's ok, you can take as much time as you need to settle into yourself."

Before it even realized it, Zane had squeezed its eyes shut, and had returned the hug with a sturdy force, its hands still shaking.

**[Stress Levels: 40%]**

**[Stress Levels Have Adequately Decreased]**

**[Destruction Program Terminated]**

Zane let out a choked sound of relief as its eyes faded to yellow, still not amazing but much better than a minute before.

"Thank you."

"It's ok, Zane. It's ok."


	7. House of Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a shorter one for y'all while I sort out dealing with online school haha. I promise I'll come out with a longer one when my days start to become routine :)

When all was said and done, Zane was sitting at its charging station, the rest of the Bounty having a late night horror movie party in the gaming room. It sat scrunched over with its head tucked into its arms, its backup shirt wrinkling in the process. A muffled screech from the group made it jump a little, fingers curling tightly into its sleeves, its eyes pulsing yellow behind closed eyelids. Its cords were lying next to it, but it didn't feel the need to plug itself in just yet.

Suddenly, there as a tugging in its chest, as if a memory long forgotten was trying to force its way to the surface. It sat up straighter, and tried to hone in on the twisting feeling. All of a sudden, its skin began to crawl, and a flash of _something_ ripped through its vision. It gasped, and tried to make sense of what it was. A lab? An asylum? Whatever the room was, it was very white and fairly empty. It gnawed on its lip, teeth threatening to break synthetic skin. When no new memories resurfaced, it decided to power off for the night, reassuring itself that the crew would be fine on their own for the rest of their evening. Zane plugged itself in and entered stasis silently, shoulders tucking into its knees as it stayed curled up on Jay's workshop floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the game room, Cole wasn't quite into the movie. Something felt completely wrong about comforting a robot that was essentially close to suicide before sending it off to go to bed as if nothing had happened. After about a half hour of his mind keeping a sinking feeling swimming around in his gut, he stood with a grunt, claiming to need to use the bathroom before headed off towards the android's charging station to see if it was still conscious. To his slight disappointment, Zane appeared to have already powered off, although its fingers remained bunched into its sleeves, fabric stretched and shoulders tensed as if it had passed out in the middle of an anxiety attack.

The Earth Ninja knelt down hastily and forcibly powered Zane back on, scared that it had reached terrible stress levels once more and ripped its own guts out or something equally as horrific. Luckily, when he pressed his fingers down into the emergency panel on its neck, it shot straight up as if shocked.

"Y- yes?" It stammered out, blinking rapidly to try and calibrate its systems.

"Oh thank god," Cole breathed, letting out a deep breath he didn't know he was holding. "I- I thought you had..."

Zane cocked its head, running through possible conclusions to Cole's sentence before one clicked with his previous speech patterns.

"Oh, I apologize if I worried you," Zane reached out what it thought appeared to be a comforting hand on the Earth Ninja's shoulder, and Cole replied by tilting his head to rest his cheek on the firm grip of the android.

"It's just... I like you, Z," Cole smiled, albeit a small one. "You're pretty cool, and not just in temperature. I don't want you to die, y'know?"

"Even if I did self destruct, Mr. Borg would most likely send you a replacement free of charge. It would not be a ZN600, but it would most likely be an android of a similar caliber. I assure you that it would not be as big of an inconvenience as you believe it to be."

"I like you for more than just your baseline functions," Cole furrowed his brow, and started to drag Zane from its spot. "Hey, I don't like you powering off here by yourself. What if your stress levels rise too high and you hurt yourself in the middle of the night?"

"Cole, you are projecting too much meaning onto me. I'm just an android, there is no need for you to be so burdened."

"Damn it, if you don't think you deserve it then do it for me. I'm worried, and I'm one of your owners in your head, right? So take this as an order if it'll make you feel better. Come with me."

And so Zane obliged.

Cole led it through the halls and to the game room, where the rest of the team was. They stared at Cole curiously, but let him set the android down next to him without questioning him. The Earth Ninja tugged the ZN600 close, keeping a close eye on the steady blue pulse of its eyes, the android fixated on the characters moving around on the screen.

To the android, the people on screen were so incredibly bizarre. It could see all of the different pathways they could take, and what ones could lead to success, but they always seemed to choose the paths that would lead to disaster. It watched them run through empty hallways and offices, although it couldn't pinpoint where they were exactly.

However, when they entered the main room, everything became all too real to Zane. It was an asylum, and the pristine white room that the protagonists entered brought back the exact same memories of before.

Flashes of medical instruments streaked across its vision, metal binding its hands and fire dancing over its skin. It inhaled sharply, eyes pulsing yellow and hands starting to curl into its arms. Cole was engrossed in the screen, too busy watching to notice Zane slipping into the past, eyes squeezing shut as its stressed climbed.

**[Stress Levels: 80%]**

**[Shutdown Will Commence If Stress Levels Are Not Lowered]**

Zane went to squeak out a warning to Cole, but no sound came out of its mouth. The team gripped onto each other as a scare approached in the movie, as Zane felt its skin start to recede around its ears and fingertips, and eyes slowly pulsed a deep orange. The team screamed and Zane's stressed spiked, forcing its system to react only as it knew how. Cole happened to glance over at the last second, panic flying across his vision as he reached out to try and grab Zane, but it was too late.

**[Initiating Shutdown in 3]**

**[2]**

**[1]**

**[...]**

**[Shutdown Successful]**


	8. Consequences

The first thing Zane felt when it woke up was warmth. Considering its usual solitary state, being so warm was a decidedly odd feeling. However, the missing puzzle piece to this whole situation was _why_ it was cozy in the first place. Last it had known, it was shutting down from an influx of previously unknown memories, and now it had woken up. Something to be determined was why it had shut down instead of destructed, but that was an issue for a different time.

For now, Zane attempted to sit up to assess its situation, but found it was being weighed down by something. It paused for a moment and attempted to scan the restraint to the best of its abilities in its compromised state, only to find that the object was indeed a human arm. Upon further inspection, the skin on this arm was rather dark, and the only residents of the Bounty with that dark of skin was Cole.

So it was being held (pinned?) down by Cole. And judging by the relaxed position of the muscles, the ninja was probably asleep. It was then that Zane noticed that it was charging, but it wasn't at its assigned charging station. It debated between adjusting its position to fully take in its environment or waking up the snoozing Earth Ninja, and decided on the former, the knowledge that it wasn't fully aware of its surroundings tugging at his chest.

With a gentle shove, Zane sat up, and Cole stirred with a quiet grumble.

Zane quickly glanced around to see that the pair were in Kai's old room, where the Fire Ninja stored his clothes. They were currently on an air mattress on the floor, and the Bounty around them was eerily quiet. Careful not to jostle the cords plugged into it, Zane checked to make sure that it was still fully intact, feeling over seams in its skin and the joints connecting the parts of its body.

Cole sat up too, rubbing his eyes wearily. He watched Zane prune itself curiously, and waited until the android was done to disturb it.

"Hey."

The ZN600 jumped, and Cole immediately smoothed a hand over its back.

"Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"There is no need to apologize, I should not have been so oblivious to my surroundings."

"It's all good, Z."

The two sat in silence, Zane's eyes remaining blue, but their usual pulse was much faster. Cole thought it was almost like the android was wearing its heart in its irises.

"So, uh," The Earth Ninja began, and Zane braced itself for what it predicted to be the line of questioning. "What happened back there, what was that?"

"The setting in the movie you were watching caused memories I did not realize I possessed to force their way to the surface."

"Is that all?" Cole asked, and the android turned its gaze away. "Because usually people don't react like that when they remember something."

"I am not a person," Zane answered quickly, before it even knew what it was saying. "Using extrapolated data from your teammates will not line up with my programmed behaviors."

Cole bit his lip, holding back on grabbing Zane's shoulders and shaking some self-awareness into the android.

"Still, shutting down shouldn't be the initial reaction. You looked scared as you were powering off, and that's not normal."

Zane didn't respond, and Cole sighed.

"Look, you don't have to tell me, but if Jay asks you have to tell him, right?"

"I would tell you as well, any orders to do so would not conflict with any existent orders given to me by Jay."

"Normally I wouldn't do this, but I don't like seeing you in pain. What were the memories about that resurfaced?"

"They were memories from when I was being worked on back in Borg's lab. They were testing the physical capabilities of their new synthetic skin design."

"What were they doing to test it?" Cole asked, although he feared the answer.

"Testing heat resistance, mostly. As a housekeeping android, it was imperative to test that it couldn't be burned by simple slips of the hand."

Cole seemed stunned for a few seconds, taking a bit to gather his composure enough to ask for clarification.

"H- how did they test the heat resistance?"

"By simulating potential scenarios, such as hot irons, pans-"

Zane trailed off when Cole's face fell, eyes widening so much that the whites were clearly visible in the low light.

"Zane, what the fuck, oh my god-"

"Your response seems rather adverse, is everything alright-"

"No! Nothing is alright, you just admitted to being fucking tortured by the engineers who worked on you!"

"Torture might be too strong of a word choice," Zane said bitterly, but didn't refute Cole's claim.

"They burned you with hot metal, how is that not torture?" The Earth Ninja seemed like he wanted to cry, and Zane stared at him curiously.

"Why does this fact have you so worked up? It is not wise to be so stressed right before going to bed."

"Because you didn't deserve all of that!"

The explosion of emotion startled Zane, and its eyes flashed yellow for a brief moment as the noise rung thought its ears. The Earth Ninja let out a strangled sigh and took a deep breath. He reached out and held Zane tightly, tugging the android to his chest for a few beats of his heart.

"Zane, when we first got you, I didn't see this coming," Cole chuckled hollowly, and Zane nodded in its attempt to soothe the ninja. "Something's not right here. I don't know why, but something's not right."

Zane quirked its head, clear blue eyes pulsing gently as it took in Cole's expression.

"I have told you everything I know in regards to my life before being given to you all. I am afraid that my memory has been altered or otherwise erased."

"They erased all of your memories?"

"I do not know that for sure, but what I do know is that I cannot access them at this point in time. I can recollect my training, but that is it. If you are curious, I can display my memories either on my hand or through the camera app of your smartphone."

Cole blinked, and shifted back to hold Zane away from him.

"You can display memories?"

"Yes, I am not the first model to be able to do so. The KR400s and ST500s can do so as well."

"I'm not gonna pretend like I know what those models are."

"The KR400s are used mostly as academic tutors for small children, and the ST500s are used as secretaries or assistants," Zane explained, and Cole blinked in surprise.

"Y'know, that wasn't a question, but you learn something new everyday, I guess," Cole smiled to himself, but it quickly fell with another thought. "Y'know, if we had met in different circumstances, I think we woulda been great friends."

"Friends?" Zane asked, eyebrows furrowing. "Do you think of me as a friend? Because I'm nothing more than a tool for your disposal. I am not worthy of a bond that strong."

Cole could practically see the stress levels rising in the android's head as its eyes bored into his own, so rather than cause another confrontation, he decided to back off.

"Alright, alright. I won't say that, got it."

A few beats of silence passed in between the two, before Zane looked away as to not make Cole uncomfortable.

"Cole, do you truly mean what you and the others said earlier? Do you truly see me as too human?"

"What's the consequences of either answer?" The Earth Ninja swallowed nervously, and Zane's gaze flickered back up to him for a brief moment.

"If you answer yes, then I will likely alter my behavioral patterns to better fit the role I was made for. If you answer no, then I will stay as I am but be cautious of my actions."

"Then no, I don't," Cole could see that Zane was going to dispute based on his previous statement, but decided that arguing against one of its owners would be a bad idea.

"Thank you, Cole," The ZN600 seemed to relax, which made his heart twist. How could someone look so relieved to hear that they were thought of as an object. "Are you tired? It is rather late, after all. My clock says that the current time is two in the morning, so it is advisable that you get some sleep."

"I'm kinda tired, but I don't really want to go to bed," Cole admitted, and Zane nodded.

"Understood. Do you wish for me to assist you in feeling more comfortable? It is part of my purpose to ease your quality of life as well as take care of your property."

"Sure, Z. Whatcha got?"

"I can give basic massages, play white noise such as rainfall and ocean waves, read available ebooks available at your chosen public library, or play music if you so desire."

"Could you read something? Haven't done that in a while."

"Would you prefer that I change my voice to a different accent or pitch?"

"No, your voice is fine."

"Which public library would you like to me to access?"

Cole stared at Zane blankly, before the ZN600 smiled.

"I will access the Ninjago City Public Library as a default. Which book would you like me to read?"

"Surprise me, Z."

Zane thought for a moment, its blue eyes pulsing in processing.

"Alright, I shall begin. Would you like to lie down? I will monitor your vitals to ensure that I will pick up where you loose consciousness next time you wish to be read to."

Cole flopped down onto the mattress once more, Zane remaining sitting beside him.

"I'm ready when you are," The Earth Ninja smiled sleepily, and Zane returned the expression tentatively, sitting back to allow for a comfortable speaking position.

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun..."


	9. Inevitability

The next morning, Zane had remembered Lloyd's complaining about not being served breakfast, and decided to prepare a proper meal to attempt to mend its mistake. It began preparing the ingredients for pancakes and a complimentary fruit salad, finding solace in the quiet calm of the kitchen as opposed to the rather busy past few days.

Making food was something it could get lost in, something that didn't require it to think about what it was doing. It loaded up the recipe in the top left of its vision, and went to work, mixing batter and chopping fruit intermittently. It thought of Cole still sleeping in the other room after Zane had lulled him to sleep, and it felt a painful spike of _something_ pass through its chest. Cole had stayed up late for it, listened to it when it had expressed its memories, and had even calmed its nerves by reassuring it of its status.

Zane almost wished that Cole had been made the primary owner over Jay, who didn't seem inclined to want to pay attention to it more than he had to. Not that he was supposed to, it was just a curious change of pace to have someone listen to it. Before it knew it, the batter was ready to be put on the pan, just in time for said ninja to arrive in the kitchen first.

"Good morning, Jay. As per Lloyd's request, I am preparing breakfast this morning. If you are unhappy with the selection of food, feel free to give me suggestions on how to improve the menu for next time."

The Lightning Ninja merely blinked, before sleepily rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, sure. Cole not get up with you?"

"No, he is still asleep to the best of my knowledge."

Jay sat down at the table without another word, and Zane followed him with its peripheral vision. After a minute or so of silence except for the gentle sizzle of the pancakes, Zane decided to try and spur a conversation.

"Would you like a beverage?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Would you like the fruit salad now? It is finished if you would-"

"Can you just... stop talking? Please?" Jay grumbled, and Zane nodded, gaze falling back down to the food. The two existed in silence once more, Jay whipping out his phone to check his social media while Zane continued to make the pancakes.

Kai was the next one to enter, although he seemed to be in a slightly better mood than Jay.

"Pancakes? Nice," He commented, peering over Zane's shoulder before joining his boyfriend at the table. Zane nodded in acknowledgment before flipping the batch on the stove over.

"Morning Jay," Kai plopped down next to him, and received a shrug in response. Kai's mouth quirked. "Sleep didn't fix your mood, huh?"

"Not really," The Lightning Ninja set his phone down with a thump before leaning his head on Kai's shoulder. "I just wanna go back to bed, it's too early for this."

"We got kids to teach, Sparky," Kai said, although he didn't sound quite happy about it either. Zane glanced over at the pair occasionally, cataloging their reactions to try to better understand the two other parts of the trio. The Fire and Lightning Ninja seemed to be the quippier of the two, always biting back at each other as opposed to Cole's more mild reactions. Despite their disagreements, they never seem to think ill of the other after a spat, so it supposed there was some greater meaning that it wasn't quite grasping. But with that thought, the third party entered the room.

Cole looked tired, but not exhausted like Jay did. He greeted Zane with a smile before turning to his boyfriends, who had each raised an eyebrow.

"Never came back to bed, huh?"

"It was pretty lonely waking up without you, man."

Cole looked sheepish, and Zane decided to wait to see what he said before jumping to any conclusions

"Yeah, I kinda fell asleep after getting Zane situated. Sorry."

Zane was about to bring up the fact that Cole had woken up in the middle of the night, but remembered Jay's order and clenched its teeth to prevent a slipup.

"If you want to cuddle the robot, you can just say so," Jay snapped, earning a glare from Cole.

"It's not about that, Jay."

"Then what is it? Its stress levels raised a little too high and you felt the need to pamper it all night? It's supposed to be the other way around."

"Well, maybe I feel bad leaving it shaking by itself because I made it have a panic attack."

"It being defective isn't your fault."

"It's not fucking defective! Just because you were expecting an emotionless slave doesn't mean that you get to force that on it."

Zane wanted so desperately to break up the fight, but that risked making Jay even angrier, which would not be wise in this scenario. Its eyes flashed yellow with concern.

"Guys, shut up," Kai said agitatedly, and Zane breathed an inward sigh of relief, irises flickering back to light blue. "The last thing we need is for you two to fight this early in the morning. Tell you what, I'll take Zane to the school again today. You two can sort your shit out together and get on the same page, and I'll keep it far away from being pulled in opposite directions. Got it?"

Cole and Jay stared at the Fire Ninja, dumbfounded for only a moment before they nodded, grumbling to themselves before Kai turned to the android.

"Finish up the pancakes, and we'll get ready, yeah? I was gonna take each class on a short hike today, so if you know any nature information I'd get that sorted before we go."

Zane nodded again, and Kai couldn't help but furrow his brow.

"Your voice okay? Usually I'd be gettin' an essay from you by now."

"Oh, that's my bad," Jay shrugged, and Zane turned towards him. "You can talk again, it's fine."

"Thank you," Zane replied, and turned back to its food. Kai could tell Cole was fighting back a remark, but he seemed to be restraining himself for now.

"You need any help while you finish up?"

"I will be fine on my own, but thank you," Zane smiled appreciatively and piled the pancakes that had just finished onto a platter, pouring a fresh batch as the three sat down at the table together, still tense. They didn't speak much to each other as Zane made the food, Jay returning to his phone and Kai gently rubbing Cole's arm. Soon after, the rest of the Bounty joined them and the tension eased, if not only performatively.

After breakfast was cleaned up and the ninja were ready to leave, Kai took Zane out with him to the school early, leaving his boyfriends alone at the Bounty. The Fire Ninja seemed awkward, as though he had invited Zane without thinking and now was regretting his decision but felt it was too late to back down.

"Please don't take this the wrong way Zane, but I wonder how things would've been if we had rejected Borg's offer, or never sent an email in the first place. Robots had always been kind of a touchy subject, but I didn't think it would get this bad."

"If you had rejected Mr. Borg's proposition, odds are would have been that I would have undergone more testing for the ZN600 line. They are most likely working on a new line of prototypes as we speak."

"Is it a weird feeling, knowing that you're made to be replaced?"

"Not particularly. I know that I am a rough draft, so to speak, and that the android that you receive as compensation for testing me will be far better suited to its tasks."

"What do you mean? You're staying with us, right?"

"I was not made to last," Zane said so casually that it almost didn't strike Kai as fucked up. "I am unsure of my expected lifespan, but the previous ZN prototypes lasted no more than three years each."

"Why is that? What makes the regular models last so much longer?"

"As per the nature of prototypes, we are created to test every feature possible for the next line, so the engineers can pick and choose the capabilities that work the best. By the end, prototype androids either physically break due to increased stress on their endoskeleton, or they destruct due to increased workload."

"So... you're either going to fall apart at the seams or commit suicide?" Kai gulped, and Zane nodded.

"Suicide is not quite the correct term, but essentially yes."

"Are you not scared? Aren't you terrified that you could just die at any time?"

Zane didn't answer right away, its eyes falling blank and expression levelling.

"I do not feel fear, Kai," The android paused in front of the doors of the school, anticipating that Kai did not want to bring this conversation into the classroom. "And my death is not the same as yours. As a human, your job in the world is to pave your own path. As an android, my job is to fulfill the job I was assigned. As such, an android's death is the final stage of this. By working until I cease all functions, I have made myself as useful as possible for the longest amount of time I could have. Death in of itself is fulfilling. However, I would rather not do so until it has been an appropriate amount of time, as I have a lot of work still left to be done."

"Well when you put it that way," Kai nodded in a daze, and opened the door. "Well, guess we better get ready for the kids. You got your tree facts all lined up?"

"Affirmative, I am prepared with much trivia regarding the local flora and fauna."

"Great. Here's to hoping that Jay and Cole sort their shit out at home, eh?"

"Yes, indeed. Having two members of a polyamorous relationship fight is never good for the group as a whole. Communication is key to a strong bond."

"Right you are, Zane. Right you are."


	10. Tough Conversations

Right after Kai and Zane left for the school, Cole and Jay sat in silence. Neither of them were eager to start this conversation, Cole knowing that he was still agitated from their earlier argument.

Jay was just stubborn, knowing that although Kai and Cole had asked him to see Zane as more human, it was still an android, and Cole's coddling was excessive in every way. But with a deep breath, Cole began the conversation.

"So," The Earth Ninja took a deep breath. "Why did you have Zane not speak?"

"It kept asking me things, and it was early and I was annoyed."

"Did you think about maybe just asking it to stop instead of ordering it around?"

"Why?" Jay rapped his fingers on the table, a nervous fidget he had picked up over the years.

"Asking it politely to stop would have been nicer than making it shut up," Cole explained gently, trying not to let his frustration get the best of him. "It doesn't want to disappoint you, Jay, just asking it would have accomplished the same task while being a little more humane."

"But why do I need to be humane? Borg's androids are programmed to follow the orders of their humans, and I'm its owner. Why should I need to be gentle?"

"I know it's easy for you to think that Zane's just another android, but I'm telling you something's not right. There's more going on in its head than it's telling us about."

Jay didn't really respond to the statement except for a hum while he thought of his next point. He glanced away when he asked his question of Cole.

"Why did you really stay with it last night? You said you didn't mean to, but I don't really buy that."

"What I said afterwards was true. It was really shaken up so I didn't want to leave it alone."

"What does it possibly have to be shaken up about?" Jay said incredulously, and Cole gnawed on his lip.

"There's more than you think. I asked it what memories I had triggered and it said that it had remembered testing that the engineers had done on it back at Borg's."

"Like what?" Jay's malice had given way to curiosity now that true robotics was involved, which wasn't too much of an improvement in Cole's mind, but still improvement nonetheless.

"It said that they had tested the heat resistance of the new synthetic skin with hot irons and pans while it was conscious."

Clearly, Jay hadn't been expecting that. He floundered for a few moments, blinking at Cole before resting his chin on his hand.

"They did that?" His voice had grown softer, and Cole nodded stoically.

"Yeah, it didn't remember up until I brought it in to watch the movie last night and something made the memories come back up. Then its stress levels jumped and I felt terrible to leave it alone again after I made it like that."

Jay didn't speak for a few moments, instead glancing around everywhere but the Earth Ninja, awkwardly rubbing his fingertips together.

"So you think it's human because of its reactions? Like all of the panicking and whatnot?" The Lightning Ninja quirked his mouth, and Cole tried not to let his happiness show that Jay seemed to be coming around.

"Yeah, machines don't react like that to being reminded of prior testing. It was seriously freaking out, but I calmed it down. Zane' machine side kinda mixes in with its more human side too, because I reassured it by making sure it knew that we still thought of it as just a house cleaning android."

"So it's an android with anxiety that's calmed down by being reminded of how worthless it is? The marvels of technology," Jay nodded in a daze, fingers drumming on the table again. Silence fell over the pair once more, both boys deep in thought and mulling over the statements made.

"We have to leave in a few minutes," Cole observed, and Jay hummed in acknowledgment. Cole could sense that Jay wanted to say something, but decided that forcing that statement out would ruin the sentiment behind it. He stayed silent up until the Earth Ninja tugged him up from his chair, and wrapped the Lightning Ninja in a tentative hug.

"I'm sorry if I've made you feel unwanted," Cole mumbled into Jay's hair. "I've just been worried about Zane, since it could literally die if left to its own devices for too long. After school is over, do you wanna do something? Like, make dinner together or get coffee or whatever?"

His boyfriend nodded into his chest, and took a deep breath.

"Was what you and Kai said the other night seriously true? Do you think that Borg isn't telling us everything about Zane?"

"I really believe that," Cole pulled away to look Jay in the eyes. "From what I've seen out of it, it's not like a normal household android. I just don't think it quite knows that itself. It really cares about you, Jay, even though you don't really feel the same back."

"Do you think I'm really that bad?" Jay's voice cracked, and his eyebrows crinkled inwards as if he were about to cry. "If you think Zane really is like a person, am I being too harsh on it?"

The Earth Ninja nodded, and his partner swiped at his eyes with his sleeve.

"Right, okay. Let's make dinner tonight. Gotta rush home to beat Kai and Zane then."

"Making dinner will do us good," Cole smiled softly, and ruffled Jay's head. "We can talk more there, yeah?"

"Yeah, we can," The redhead sniffed, and turned towards the door. "We need to get going. Hopefully we aren't _too_ late."

"We'll be fine," Cole shrugged, and tugged Jay towards the door. "Just forget about it for now, no use worrying the kids."

"Yeah," Jay took a shuddering breath, and followed Cole out. "Yeah, later."

* * *

Kai was nervous out of his mind as he and Zane walked home. Sure, he had seen Cole and Jay in passing throughout the school day, but what they had discussed beforehand was still a complete mystery to him. Zane had entertained the kids well enough, spouting off fun facts about random animals that scurried by as well as the plants that they encountered, and Kai was grateful for the stress taken off his shoulders.

His boyfriends had gone home immediately after school ended, not wanting to wait around like they usually do to walk home together. He hoped that it meant that they wanted to talk more, but the fact that the conversation had probably turned into an argument nagged at the back of his mind. Kai had needed to finish up preparing for the next day's activity, and had decided to stay to do so with a little android assistance. So, unfortunately, the other two had been at the Bounty alone for a little longer than Kai had hoped.

"Kai, are you alright?" Zane asked, and the Fire Ninja jumped.

"I'm just worried is all, don't worry about it," Kai waved Zane away, and the android quirked its mouth.

"Part of my directive as a household android is to ensure the emotional wellbeing of the occupants. I will not pressure you into speaking to me, but I know that the last time you did you said that it made you feel more at ease."

Kai didn't verbally respond, but he nodded in acknowledgment before the pair continued on. They walked for a few minutes in silence, just listening to the birds for a couple moments of peace.

"Just... whatever came of their conversation, Zane, don't take it personally. If Jay is weird towards you, it's not because you did anything wrong. Alright?"

"Affirmative."

When the two walked through the door, however, the lovely smell of roasted vegetables and pork reached them. Kai furrowed his brow, and Zane's eyes flashed yellow at the thought of its owners having to prepare their own food, especially after the rough morning. Kai noticed the change in Zane's demeanor, and nudged it with his elbow.

"Hey, it's okay. It's not that late, they could have waited for you. You didn't do anything wrong."

Zane nodded, but it didn't look very convinced. The look it got from Jay when the two walked in did nothing to ease its nerves.

"Hey Zane, hey Kai," Jay greeted sheepishly, busy seasoning some greens on the stove. "Cole and I figured we'd do something together, so we decided to make dinner together."

Zane was still slightly stunned, but Kai raised an eyebrow. He wanted to ask for the reasoning behind this seeming change of heart, but could see Jay's hesitance in explaining more with the android standing right there.

"Zane, could you grab me some Tylenol or something? I feel a headache coming on."

"Of course," Zane broke from its stiff posture and left swiftly, and Kai sighed.

"Alright, what's actually going on?"

"Jay feels bad now," Cole said bluntly, and Jay huffed a little from his place by the stove. "He didn't realize that Zane had some sort of robot PTSD and-"

"Zane has what now?" Kai's eyes widened, but he didn't get to ask for more info before said android returned with a few pills.

"Based on your age and weight, I figured an appropriate dose was three pills," Zane explained as it handed Kai the medicine and a glass of water from the bathroom sink, and the Fire Ninja downed the pills quickly.

"Thanks. You can go and charge for a bit if you want, we can get dinner covered in here."

"If you think I should charge, then I will do so," Zane nodded, and it stepped out of the room once more, this time headed towards Kai's room where the charging cables still were.

"Long story short, it sounds like they did some pretty inhumane testing on it," Jay winced, and Cole nodded in silent agreement. "So Cole thinks that Zane is so jumpy and anxious because there's some sort of repressed memory saying that we're going to do something if it doesn't."

"And I learned something about the self destruct thing, I think," Kai tacked on, and his boyfriends' eyebrows raised. "It seems like all of the prototypes have it. They're only made to last a few years, so eventually all of them literally fall apart or they kill themselves from stress."

"But then why is Zane so stressed out now?" Cole's expression darkened, and Kai and Jay shrugged.

"Not sure. It's not like we're giving it any super strenuous work or anything," Jay quirked his mouth, and Kai felt a terrible feeling swirl in his gut.

"Guys, call me crazy, but somehow I feel like Zane wasn't actually made to be a household android."

"What do you mean?" Cole asked, not outwardly dismissing Kai but also not too sure of his statement.

"Well, I'm not an engineer or anything, but isn't there usually more than just one prototype made for a line as big as the ZNs? And why would Zane have such an issue with keeping calm while just doing normal tasks like cooking and cleaning and stuff?"

"Yeah, the fact that it seems to be the only ZN600 being tested is a bit fishy," Jay finished up his vegetables, plating them on the side of each platter as not to interfere with Cole's portion of the meal. "And the fact that Borg doesn't want to directly monitor its testing is a little suspicious too."

"Should we ask him?" Cole inquired, following up behind Jay's part of the meal with his own. "I mean, how much could it hurt just to ask, right?"

"Well, considering the fact that Zane seems to have suffered some sort of sketchy testing, and that Borg seems to be hiding information from us, asking about it might just make him take Zane back, which would not be good right now," Jay stuffed his hands in his pockets with a sigh.

Cole paled, chest tightening at the thought of losing the android so soon.

"Fair point," The Earth Ninja frowned, and that was the end of that conversation. None of the ninja quite knew how to continue the conversation, so they decided to drop it in favor of their dinner.

Meanwhile, Zane was in Kai's old room, sitting on the floor with the cables plugged in but not powering down just yet. The Fire Ninja had invited it to power off early into the evening, but it could tell that it was more of an order than a question. So it sat, not needing a recharge but also unwilling to leave the room.

The air mattress that Cole had used last night was sitting a few paces away, made up by the android before it had left for the academy with Kai. A strange pull in Zane's chest made it gnaw on its lip, eyes pulsing a faint yellow for only a split second before returning to their steady blue. It remembered how warm Cole's arm had felt around it, and how it had felt taken care of after it had lulled him to sleep.

An error message in its vision made it waver, and it attempted to think of something else as a distraction. It focused on the grooves in the wood floor, worn from desert sands and constant use. The gentle ridges gave it something to focus on, which it welcomed gladly as it calmed down from the warnings.

It distantly heard the crew eating dinner together in the dining room, the laughter of the team a stark contrast to the blanket of silence that seemed to fall over it. Much like the first time it had looked at the pictures on the nightstand, it felt a sense of longing that it couldn't quite understand.

To rid itself of the lingering sense of an error, it decided to power down early, despite its earlier resistance to doing so. With a quiet sigh and a slump into its arms, Zane fell into a dreamless stasis, alarm set for the next morning.


	11. My Purpose Is To Serve

Cole wasn't sure whether he was relieved or disappointed when he peaked into Kai's old room to find Zane already shut down. On one hand, he was glad that the android was finally getting the rest it needed. On the other, however, it already being shut off meant that he couldn't talk to it more, or have it read him more of the story from the night before. However, as much as he wanted to talk to Zane, he really also wanted to sleep in his own room that night with his two boyfriends and not on an air mattress on the floor.

So he heaved a sigh, pat Zane on the head once, and turned around to head back to his own quarters. Inside, Jay and Kai were already snuggled together, the Fire Ninja holding the other close, gentle fingers carded through short curls. It was so domestic, and Cole would've taken a picture had Kai not turned his head towards Cole upon him opening the door.

"Hey, come on in," Kai opened up the arm not tucked in Jay's hair, and Cole slid next to him, keeping the lamp on for now. The Lightning Ninja appeared to be fast asleep, chest rising and falling with heavy breaths, and face relaxed into a neutral expression. "I think today took a lot out of him. He just clonked out as soon as he got comfortable."

"Zane's out too, although that's probably more from boredom than from tiredness."

The two were quiet for a long time, listening to the faint whir of the ceiling fan and the ever so slight whistle of Jay's breathing. Tomorrow was a Saturday, which meant that the crew had the day off. Days off usually meant dates, but something was unspoken in the air that the crew wouldn't be leaving their quarters.

Cole was determined to get Jay to like Zane.

He didn't know whether that meant making Zane read a book to him or what, but the Lightning Ninja was due for a hang out with the android whether he liked it or not. Maybe then, the Lightning Ninja would be willing to help them figure out why Zane was so different from all of the other androids. Cole didn't realize he was staring angrily at the top of Jay's head until Kai poked him.

"Hey, what's wrong? You look mad."

"I'm just thinking," Cole murmured, careful not to wake their sleepy partner. "I think if we can get Jay to warm up to Zane, then maybe we can have him help us figure out why Zane is so weird."

"Yeah, maybe," Kai echoed, unconsciously clenching his fingers in Jay's hair. "He's kinda stubborn though, so we'll see. It'd be nice if he grew to actually like it though, I think they could actually get along if they tried."

Cole hummed in agreement, feeling his eyes slip shut with exhaustion, but not before he had the foresight to turn off the lamp.

"'Night, Kai. See you in the morning."

"G'night, Cole."

Silence for a few beats, and then-

"Wait, Kai."

"Huh- what?"

Cole didn't flick the lamp back on, but Kai could practically see the man's eyes glowing as he sat up.

"Should we go to Borg tomorrow?"

"Wait, but didn't you just say earlier that that was a bad idea?"

"I know, I know, but I can't let Zane live like this," Cole grimaced, and Kai fell quiet for a moment as he thought.

"So, you'll risk him just taking Zane back for a better life for it?"

"Y- yeah," Cole swallowed. "Hey, if it comes down to it, we're ninja, right? We can bust it out of there no problem if Borg decides to go all super villain on us."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Kai nodded, relaxing back into the pillows. "We'll tell Jay in the morning, ok?"

"Sure thing. Goodnight for real this time."

"G'night."

* * *

Zane's stress levels spiked by 10% when it noticed Jay walk into the kitchen first once more. It was later today, as it was a Saturday and a slower day by nature, but the situation still made Zane's hands glitch for a moment regardless of that fact.

"What're you makin'?" Jay asked sleepily, resting his hands on the counter next to the stove as Zane whisked a bowl of something.

"I am preparing omelets. I will make them for each member of the crew as they walk in to gauge preference accurately. What would you like in yours?"

"Do we have spinach and feta?"

Its eyes flashed yellow for a moment, processing.

"Yes, you do have both ingredients stocked. Will that be all?"

"Yeah, sounds great."

Zane expected Jay to go and sit down, but the Lightning Ninja stayed put, expression nervous. His eyes focused on the android for a little longer than Zane anticipated, and its gaze darted back and forth between its meal preparation and Jay's stare tentatively.

"Is something the matter?"

"No, no, it's just, uh," Jay seemed very flustered about something, and was that blush on his cheeks? "What was your life like before you came here? Cole's mentioned a little to me but I want to make sure I have everything."

"My earliest memory is being activated," Zane explained, fetching Jay's fillings from the fridge. "I was powered on by Mr. Borg for the first time in his research lab, along with the other engineers who helped to create me. From there, my memory is spotty at best, with the most prominent ones as of right now being my basic training."

"That's it?" Jay quirked his mouth, and Zane nodded in agreement. It appeared to not be too bothered, but Jay knew that was a lie.

"Yes, much of the testing done strained my processors, so my memory was affected negatively as a result. I assure you, however, that this imperfection does not affect my performance."

"That's good, at least," Jay commented, albeit a little awkwardly. "Does it bother you that you can't remember any of that?"

"No," Zane responded almost automatically, it seemed, no thought being put into its statement as it poured Jay's omelet into the pan. "Since it does not affect my performance, it is of no concern to me."

The Lightning Ninja shifted on his feet, not sure of what to say next but reluctant to go. A few long moments passed, Zane not minding the silence but the quiet feeling deafening to Jay. Eventually, the ninja spoke up.

"Uh, I'm sorry. For yesterday, I mean. I shouldn't have told you to shut up like that, you didn't deserve it."

That made Zane flinch. It dropped the omelet back into the pan midway through flipping it, and glanced over at Jay with a nervous eye.

"Why are you apologizing? You are my owner. You do not need to explain your actions to me."

"I'm apologizing because I was an ass. You were just offering me stuff and I snapped at you because I was mad at Cole, and you didn't deserve that."

"I deserve anything you think I do," Zane argued, careful not to burn Jay's breakfast as it folded the egg. "Just because you feel regret for treating me one way or another does not demand an apology. My purpose is to serve, and my purpose is what you requested a model for."

"I asked for a model back when I thought you were just going to be a mindless housekeeping android, but you're not," Jay admitted, and Zane couldn't tell if his tone was disappointed or not. "You're something more than that, apparently. I can't just ignore that anymore."

"I'm really not," Zane insisted, plating Jay's food and holding it out on a plate for him.

"You are to Cole and Kai, at least," Jay shrugged, taking the eggs. "Cole stayed with you after you passed out, right? That's gotta mean something to you."

"Cole stayed with me because he felt guilt over causing irregularities in my system, not because I asked or forced him to."

Jay could tell the ZN600 was getting a bit irritated now, or least as irritated as it could be without making its eyes glitch. The android would never tell him to leave it alone, that would be blasphemous and completely out of line for the housekeeper, but Jay got the hint well enough and went to sit down with his omelet. Cole was always better at this whole talking thing than him anyway.

Slowly but surely, the Bounty joined him, and Cole and Kai walked in together, Cole lingering behind to speak to Zane for a few moments before joining the others at the table. The Earth Ninja looked nervous, and Jay kept trying to silently signal him to no avail. Jay cursed Cole and his incredibly situational obliviousness. That is, until Cole finally cleared his throat.

"Hey, uh, later today Kai, Jay, and I are going into the city, if anyone else wants to come. We're going to go to Borg Industries to finally figure out what the hell is going on with Zane."


	12. New Developments

Zane wasn't sure why, but it didn't like that the team was bringing it to Borg Industries. Its stress levels had been hovering around a cool 35% ever since Jay had informed it of the decision, and it couldn't say that it could see the number going down anytime soon. Although Zane couldn't place why, the building itself sparked some sort of deep discomfort down inside, like a cherry pit that refused to be loosened was sitting snugly in its systems. The imposing glass building loomed over the group, but the ZN600's expression stayed as neutral as ever, eyes crystal blue with only the slightest hint of yellow visible deep beneath the surface.

Cole was tempted to reach a hand out to comfort the android, but knew it'd be met with rejection. Its eyes scanned the glass methodically, pausing only for a brief moment on the guard droids at the entrance. It cocked its head, eyes flashing a hue of green that Jay had never seen an android have, and the guards responded with their own blips of agreement and opened the doors. Zane nodded appreciatively and led the group inside, the trio marveling at the ZN600's capabilities. Zane didn't seem to notice, however, and stepped aside to allow them entry.

"I have been told that Mr. Borg is on floor 23, and he has been notified of your presence. Would you like me to accompany you?"

"Yeah, yeah," Cole nodded, and Zane followed them into the elevator and up, watching the group marvel at the speed. When the doors open, Borg's demeanor was not the same as the first time the ninja had met him. His eyebrows were furrowed, his fingers laced in his lap.

"What brings you back to my tower so soon? It's only been a few weeks."

"We just have some questions that I think are better addressed in person," Jay swallowed nervously, unsure of what to make of the slight scowl on the man's face.

"Like what?"

"Well, mostly about Zane's emotional capacities," The Lightning Ninja stepped forward, and Zane titled its head. It hadn't really been aware that the visit was about it. "I haven't met too many androids from the ZN line, but Zane feels like it _feels_ more. Which makes it shut down, and then it panics more. It's kind of a bad cycle. So what's going on here?"

Cyrus pondered his answer, before he turned around and wheeled over to the massive computer in the back of the room.

"You are aware of the general structure and function of the ZN500, correct, Jay?"

"Yeah?"

"Alright, then watch closely."

With a few key presses, the blueprints for both models appeared side by side. Oddly enough, the 500 model looked to be more advanced physically.

"The 500 has more capabilities," Jay said slowly, looking over the various compartments in the arms and torso, most likely for storing soap, rags, and other cleaning items. "Zane has only a fraction."

"Correct," Cyrus grinned, and Zane's eyes started to spin yellow.

"What are you trying to say here, Mr. Borg?" Kai frowned, not quite sure where this is going. Cyrus looked to Jay, who was staring at the screen.

"Zane's... not a cleaning android?"

"Also correct."

"So what's it's actual purpose then?" Cole butt in, stomach curling in knots. "If it's not actually made to clean, why'd you give it to us?"

"You see, you three, we needed some sort of method to test our experimentations. So when you emailed, it was a prime opportunity."

"What experimentations?" Jay glared, feeling electricity crackling at his fingertips.

"Zane is our most developed AI yet. It can feel emotions like fear, love, pride, and all sorts of others. But what's the fun in developing a highly advanced AI if no one's around to test it blindly?"

"So you passed it onto us to test?"

"Exactly. A memory wipe and and a few false objectives later and you have yourself a fake cleaning android!"

The crew was silent, and Cole turned to look at the android, who was slightly behind him. Its eyes were a deep amber, staring off in the general direction of Cyrus, unblinking. The skin around its fingers and neck was receding.

"How do we make it normal again?" Jay forced himself to ask calmly, the bolts crackling down his spine. "Is there a normal it can return to?"

"Yes, there is," The inventor shrugged, and looked down at the android. "Floor 14, room 4b, code 6590."

Zane nodded absently before turning and walking to the elevator, the ninja scrambling behind it. The doors opened silently and they filed in, the atmosphere more tense than when they had arrived. Kai wanted to throw up from the nerves as he watched Zane's hands twitch from the stress clouding its vision. When they reached floor 14, Zane navigated easily, unlocking the correct door and entering swiftly. Inside was a man, hunched over and tinkering with a mass of gears and bolts, glasses askew. He looked up with a startled expression.

"Zane?" He asked in disbelief, and the ninja shared uneasy glances. "Oh my gosh, it is you!"

Zane was tugged forward to the center of the room, eyes pulsing the same deep color.

"Woah, woah, what's going on?" Cole followed, staying close behind the android. "You know Zane?"

However, the Earth Ninja was completely brushed aside, and the man pulled up documents on his tablet on the table.

"How have you been, my boy?"

"Your... boy?" Zane tilted its head, voice glitching on the upwards tilt of its words. The man's smile faded slightly, and just then he seemed to notice the stark red of the android's eyes. "Hey, hey, it's ok..."

The man took Zane's hands in his own, gently rubbing the plastic joints with his thumbs.

"You I don't like seeing you so stressed, son. It's alright."

Oddly enough, that seemed to calm the android down. Its eyes faded to a pale yellow, the synthetic skin barely resurfacing. It scanned the man steadily, brow furrowing.

"My systems seem to recognize you... but I am afraid I do not know you."

"Yeah, you definitely seem to know Zane," Jay remarked, mouth quirking. "Who are you, anyway?"

"My apologies, gentlemen. I'm afraid I got swept up in the excitement. My name is Dr. Julien, and I'm the one who originally created Zane."


	13. Handshake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consider this a Christmas present from me to everyone who has commented, given kudos, or even just enjoyed my works. Y'all are the reason I keep writing :)

Silence fell over the team for a moment. Zane stared blankly at the man in front of it, blinking slowly as it processed the situation.

"You... created me?" The ZN600 asked slowly, eyes cycling a steady yellow.

"Of course! You were my prime project," The doctor smiled warmly, albeit a tad confusedly from the android's hesitation.

"So Mr. Borg didn't create it? I'm kinda lost," Jay furrowed his brow, and Julien scoffed.

"The idea that he could create someone as intelligent as Zane is preposterous. Cyrus knows how to fit his androids with all sorts of gadgets, I know how to give them life!"

"So then why would he lie to us?" Jay asked, agitation seeping into his tone. "I mean, he had no reason to offer to give us Zane if it was yours, and he didn't even create it in the first place?"

"I didn't know what Cyrus did with him after the initial stages," The doctor said morosely, tugging Zane a little closer. "I thought I'd never see him again."

"Uh, if I may," Cole interrupted. "But you keep calling Zane 'he'."

"Of course," Julien nodded. "He's my son, after all. No less human than the rest of you."

Zane's eyes lit up red, and it pulled away from the group harshly.

"I am not human," It insisted, almost uncharacteristically harshly for it. "To imply otherwise would be against everything that Borg Industries stands for."

"Zane, it's okay," The doctor coaxed the robot closer, smile sad but reassuring. "I'm not going to hurt you, but I do want to see what Cyrus did to you. I know he must've altered you somehow."

"Altered?" Jay raised an eyebrow. "So this isn't Zane's actual state?"

"I'm afraid not... especially since he doesn't remember me. His memory must've been wiped, but I can't tell what else has been done to him. Has anything unusual happened with him since he fell into your care?"

"Um," Cole thought for a moment. "Its system threatens it with self destruction every time its stress gets too high, it randomly shuts down if confronted with any sort of emotional situation, and it has panic attacks when it remembers things."

The doctor went quiet, looking between Cole and Zane, all parties uneasy in the silence.

"I didn't create Zane with any of those features," He said quietly, a morose tone tinting his voice. "Cyrus must have added them."

"So this isn't Zane?" Cole gestured to the android beside him, and the doctor nodded. "Then what is?"

"Give me a moment and I'll try and show you," The man gnawed on his lip, beckoning the android forward once again. It looked to Jay for confirmation, who nodded and gestured for it to move forward. It allowed the inventor access to its arm panel, and he plugged a few cords in before stepping back to peer at his computer screen.

"Hm, it looks like his abilities have been capped," He furrowed his brow, glancing between Zane and the screen. "Perhaps this will work..."

That was all the warning the doctor gave before he punched in some numbers and Zane dropped to the floor.

Cole knelt down beside the android immediately, worriedly rolling Zane' head into his lap.

"What the hell did you do to him?"

"I merely restored all of his memory files. It takes a lot of processing power, y'know," Julien said calmly, kneeling down beside the pair. Now that Cole listened, he could hear the fans in Zane's chest whirring away with the added strain.

At the mention of restoring memories, Cole could practically see the red glow behind its eyelids.

"You sure it's gonna be ok? I mean, last time it remembered something from its past it freaked out and shut down," The Earth Ninja smoothed the hair down, finding it surprisingly soft for being plastic strands.

"Yes, I am sure he will be fine," Julien said, and as soon as he finished, Zane's eyes shot open, its entire body stiffening where it laid.

"Oh my goodness!" Zane exclaimed, sitting upright and huddling against the table.

"You alright, son?" Julien asked calmly, and Zane nodded slowly.

"Yes, I believe so," It answered methodically, but the crimson glow of its irises said otherwise.

"Zane, if you can, please recount for me what happened to you so I can help."

"AI testing," It mumbled, arms curling around itself. "They were seeing how long I would last before dying."

At that thought, the doctor fell quiet, shuffling next to Zane and pulling the android close to him.

"They- they wiped my memory over and over," It continued, and this time its gaze turned up to the ninja standing above, including Cole, who had joined the rest in watching the android in awe. "They wanted to see how barriers impacted performance."

"What kind of barriers?" The doctor probed, and Zane thought for a moment.

"Stress levels directly correlated with self destruction protocols, memory recovering was linked with reboots, as were any strong emotions. My actions were also dictated by orders given to me with no mental room for deviation."

Jay suddenly looked sick, glancing between his friends, who seemed to come to the same realization he did.

"So... you were trapped this whole time?" Jay asked, voice cracking.

"Not necessarily," Zane explained, its eyes falling to a steady yellow. "While I felt the affects of the limitations, I wasn't aware that I had any placed upon me."

"Sorry if this is kinda an awkward question, but are you still... ours?" Cole asked and the doctor jumped into answer that one.

"Technically, yes. Zane does contractually belong to you all."

"Well, what do you want, Zane?" Kai offered, head slightly tilted. "I mean, we've kinda gotten used to you on the Bounty, although it looks like that might not be a good thing."

The android thought for a moment, eyes pulsing as it ran through calculations. Finally, it looked up at Kai with a set gaze.

"I think I would like to return with you, if that is alright with you, Father," Zane's eyes turned towards its inventor, who nodded.

"If that's what you want, son."

"Heh, this is gonna be kinda weird to explain to the others. 'Hey, remember the android we got from Borg? Yeah, it's a sentient being now!'" Jay laughed nervously, and Zane's expression darkened.

"If it's not an issue, I'd rather not be referred to as an object, thank you."

"Right, okay," Kai held a hand out to the android, who took the hand and stood.

"Now that we are on a more equal playing field, I think this an appropriate gesture," Zane grasped Kai's hand firmly, and gave it a gentle shake. "My name is Zane Julien, and it is nice to meet you properly."


	14. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this isn't a super long chapter or anything, I just wanted to get something out since it's been sorta hard for me to sit down and write lately. Take care y'all!

Cole was still sort of in shock from the new development, but he couldn't say he was disappointed. Zane was leading them back from its- _his_ creator's lab, clearly not too happy with whatever memories had been uncovered and wasn't quite in the mood to discuss it with the ninja. His eyes pulsed a steady yellow, clearly deep in thought as they rode the elevator down to Borg's level, the golden glow bouncing off the glass walls.

The trio of boys exchanged glances with each other, not used to Zane ignoring them in favor of whatever was cycling through his head. The elevator slowed with a ding, and Zane stepped off without even waiting for the others to follow him.

"Mr. Borg," The android stared coldly, arms crossed. "Would you care to explain yourself?"

"Ah, Zane," Cyrus cocked his head, which made Zane's mouth tilt into a frown. "It didn't take you very long to get back to your old self."

"It took more than enough time. The alterations you did to me without my father's or my own consent shouldn't have happened in the first place."

The ninja watched this exchange flabbergasted, their usually meek android now having no issue with giving Cyrus a piece of his mind. Cole prepared to lunge forward to hold Zane back in the event that Cyrus said something he didn't like.

"The whole point was that they _needed_ to be a surprise. If you knew that they were coming it wouldn't have been the same. We couldn't possibly have you or your creator intervene."

"Uh, hey, interruption here," Jay spoke up, stepping forward. "We heard a bit about what you did to Zane, but why did you do them, really?"

"You're an inventor too, correct?" Borg dodged, although Jay wasn't sure if it was an intentional dodge or not.

"Yes, but what does that actually have to do with anything?"

"Then you must understand the curiosity. Here we are, faced with the most intelligent, adaptive, and _human_ AI that Ninjago has ever seen, and you appear to be expecting me to let it-"

" **Him.** " Zane glared.

"- _him_ to walk free and deprive Ninjago of the potential benefits. I'm afraid that my position requires nothing less than experimentation, Jay."

"While I see where you're coming from from a completely objective view, you do realize how messed up this is, right?" The Lightning Ninja narrowed his eyes, and Zane looked over at him with a relieved expression. "Like, you just acknowledged that Zane's completely intelligent and human and you're still willing to fuck up his memories and basically torture him just for a profit?"

"It's not torture when done on a robot," Cyrus raised an eyebrow, and Zane's hands twitched where they rested at his sides. "Wouldn't you rather that Ninjago advance in technology? Using the data collected from Zane, the goal was to be able to develop more human companions by analyzing what specific traits programmed into an android make it more likely to deviate from authority. Wouldn't you say that's a noble goal?"

"Not when you're basically testing on a human," Jay contended firmly, and Borg stayed silent for a few moments.

"You've already claimed the android, yes?"

"I mean, if you can even call it that anymore."

"Then take it and leave. I will develop more AI to test on, and I will have more chances to improve. Losing one android isn't worth making an enemy of you and your team."

"Alright, alright," Jay turned to Zane, who shakily looked between him and Borg. Then, before any of the ninja could have a say, Zane turned around and stepped into the elevator, closing the doors and beginning his descent. The ninja awkwardly shuffled into an adjacent elevator and rode down after him. At the bottom, they found him sitting on one of the benches outside the tower, knees curled up to his chest and eyes pulsing a steady orange.

"Hey, hey," Cole sat down next to him hurriedly, tugging the android closer. "You alright, Z?"

Zane looked over with a strained smile but didn't answer the question.

"C'mon," Kai extended a hand, even his expression shaken up, "Let's just go home."

Zane accepted the hand, but stayed close to Cole for the rest of the way home, expression pensive. It was an odd look for the usually pleasant android. Once home, Cole tugged Zane into his room, if not only to give the poor guy some clothes besides dress pants and a button down.

What Cole wasn't expecting, however, was to be wrapped in a hug by a near-tears robot, blunt nails digging into his back as Zane buried his face in the Earth Ninja's shoulder. He attempted to soothe Zane, but it was clear that whatever psychological damage that had been done by the barriers forced upon him ran deeper than a singular hug.

"Do you sleep?" Cole asked, feeling stupid while doing so but decided it was for the greater good anyway. Zane nodded incredibly faintly, and Cole wasn't sure why he was surprised when Zane pulled away looking like the crying had never happened at all. Perks of being an android, he supposed.

After closing his eyes while Zane dressed himself in some of Cole's old pajamas, the Earth Ninja coaxed him into bed, shutting the blinds as to not let the blinding afternoon sun interrupt their nap. Cole pulled Zane closer, at least glad that this time it wasn't on an air mattress in Kai's room. With a few soft exhales from Cole and some actually very endearing beeps from Zane, the two enjoyed a much-needed sleep.


	15. Birds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, I'm not dead! Just depressed lol. I'll try and write when I have motivation, so rest assured these works aren't abandoned :')

Zane wasn't sure what to do with himself. Cole was still asleep, soundly snuggled with a pillow tucked close to his chest. The android was on his back, eyes casting a faint blue glow on the ceiling. His internal clock was flashing that it was almost the evening, and he was fighting the strong urge deep down inside to get up and make the ship food, red notifications flashing in his vision. The others were moving around the Bounty frequently, and Zane wasn't quite sure what was going on from just the sounds alone. Eventually, he decided to leave Cole to nap and slowly crept out of bed as not to wake him.

He didn't meet anyone on the way to the kitchen, hearing them bustle about in other rooms. They weren't starting to prepare dinner yet, but considering how time was ticking, they probably were intent on ordering out due to laziness. While he wasn't entirely surprised that they had become reliant on him to cook, it made him frown to think that they were already that useless without him.

He laid out the knives, deciding which one to use to prepare, and was reminded eerily of the first real conversation he had with Cole. His fingers flinched at the memory, making him drop the knife he was holding, making it clatter loudly on the floor. Zane's eyes flashed yellow out of embarrassment as he picked it up, only to see Jay's startled face in the doorway when he rose.

"Already up?" Jay asked, stepping inside. "Kinda figured you two were gonna be knocked out for a while."

"I have no need for true sleep," Zane shrugged, placing the knife on the counter. "I need to recharge, yes, but it doesn't necessarily correlate with a human sleep schedule."

Jay hummed in acknowledgement, leaning on the counter to watch Zane put away the knives with mild interest. However, his gaze was more fixed on the android.

"So, how're you feeling?"

Zane contemplated his answer for a moment, eyes blinking with thought.

"I am not sure. I appreciate not being under the influence of Cyrus' tests, but on the other hand, that involves remembering what they were."

Jay frowned slightly as Zane seemed to shake those thoughts from his head, focused on meal prepping.

"So if you're free from all of that extra data and whatever... why are you still cooking?"

Zane seemed to ponder how he wanted to answer this question, movements methodical.

"I don't really know," He said quietly, beginning to peel a potato over the sink, fingers positioned perfectly so around the handle of the peeler, applying pressure in exact strokes. "I suppose I feel obligated to, in some regard. After all, you all were, ah, very accommodating to me when I wasn't exactly the most helpful android."

"Don't beat yourself up for not being a good slave for us, man," Jay furrowed his brow, sliding down to sit on one of the barstools at the counter. "Anyway, I've only actually known _you_ for not a long time. Got any interesting stories about yourself?"

Zane smiled. A welcome change from the usual, vaguely somber expression he usually wore. It was a nice look on the android, Jay thought.

"Well, we used to have a falcon, back when I was only a few weeks old. It had been rescued because of a mangled leg, and by the time it recovered it was too accustomed to captivity to return. It stayed with us for a while, until a local sanctuary took it in," Zane recounted wistfully, eyes glancing towards the window to his side, perhaps subtly wishing for birds to appear outside.

"That reminds me," The ninja leaned his head on his wrist, eyes meeting the android's. "How old are you, really?"

"Approximately three years old, although the last six months or so have been spent either in the company of you or..."

Zane trailed off, and returned his gaze strictly to the tasks at hand. His eyes pulsed yellow once, and Jay frowned in sympathy.

"Do you actually like us, Zane? It's okay whatever you say, I won't be mad."

"I do, I promise you," He closed eyes and mimicked a deep breath, fingers shaking ever so slightly. "I just can't think of my past here or all I can think of is that _awful_ laboratory."

Jay felt his heart clench as Zane set the now peeled potato and peeler down on the counter, fingers gripping the edge of the laminate. The ninja stood, gingerly stepping around the counter and wrapping his arms around the android, hearing the mechanics and fans whir in his chest. Zane didn't quite reciprocate, but he also made no move to push him away.

"We can just order pizza," Jay said quietly, voice muffled by a shirt that still smelled strongly of his boyfriend. "Honestly, I think one of the best things for you right now would just be to stay as far away from chores and whatever as you can."

"You think so?"

"I do. You're obviously stressing yourself out unnecessarily right now. What are your levels even at, anyway?"

"Erm, 42%."

"Yeah, I'm bringing you to Kai. I'll order pizza and clean up and whatever, just go relax with him."

Zane nodded silently, a large part of his brain still refusing to refute anything Jay says, but that was a problem for a different time. At the moment, he found himself being led to the gaming room, where Kai was busy trying to beat one of Lloyd's high scores. Not too unusual, given the time of day.

"Help Zane calm down," Jay stated simply, and turned around and left, stranding Zane in the doorway as Kai scrambled to pause the game.

"Huh, what's going on?" He asked, disoriented. Usually people gave him time to collect himself if they interrupted his gaming.

"Jay has ordered- ah, _instructed_ me to calm down, and decided that you would be the optimal person to achieve this with."

"Alright, come sit down then."

And so Zane did. He sat, and learned very quickly the rules of the game Kai was playing, and even noticed holes in his strategy that he gently corrected. After a while, however, the game slowed, and Zane found himself being used as a headrest by a very sleepy fire ninja. The android even found himself dozing off too, his battery flashing as 33% as his eyes fluttered shut, Kai's skin burning hot against his own.

Right before he fell unconscious, he noted that his stress had dropped to only 5%.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Sit Still, Look Pretty(PODFIC)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27419029) by [WhaleKingdom (BadFeelin)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadFeelin/pseuds/WhaleKingdom)




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